


Break Rules (Not Oaths)

by wakandan_wardog



Series: Time Heals All [3]
Category: Doctor Strange (2016), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Canonical Character Death, Dark!Stephen Strange, Dark!Tony Stark, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, I'm Sorry, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Infinity War AU, M/M, Misplaced Rage, Not Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Compliant, Parental IronMagic, Temporary Character Death, Vengeful Characters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-25
Updated: 2018-05-25
Packaged: 2019-05-13 18:29:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,048
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14754038
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wakandan_wardog/pseuds/wakandan_wardog
Summary: Tony dies but returns, returns and watches as Peter turns to dust. Surely Stephen could have stopped this?





	Break Rules (Not Oaths)

Stephen’s world ends, repeatedly, on an alien planet that he never wanted to visit in the first place. An alien world that is little more than a wasteland, a monument to a long-dead people. A warning to Earth, some might say. 

Tony sees a battleground, Stephen cannot help but agree. 

But he never wanted to lose this, never wanted war to cost him this. War and choices and free will... all leading up to paying a terrible, endless price. 

Tony dissolves, melts into dust before Stephen’s very eyes. 

**No.** Some things are not acceptable. 

Stephens hands rise, and when they move they do not shake. Stilled by rage, by sheer stubbornness and intent. He **will** change this. 

Tony dissolves… but Returns. 

Time winds backwards, immediate and all too slow, all at once. Time winds back and Tony coalesces, reborn from ash of himself, like a phoenix. A metaphor he’s been previously fond of, likened himself to. Now he has become that in truth. Turned to dust and then Returned… But somehow he still knows what it feels like to be unmade. He cannot unlearn it. 

Tony returns and time resumes winding forward again, unspooling ahead of him. The world around him is alien, the drift of it off, shifting, like he himself has reoriented to a new axis. 

Tony returns, and watches Peter, his boy, his protégé, his son, turn to dust. 

_Mr. Stark, I don’t feel so good._ Peter's voice is a thready whisper, soft and sorrowful and scared. 

Stephen's heart aches. 

_I don’t wanna go… I don’t wanna go…_

Tony returns to heartbreak and stares at his husband and sobs. “No Stephen. Tell me you didn’t.” 

Stephen can’t, of course. Can’t and won’t. They made oaths never to lie to each other. Never to damage or abandon. Do no harm to each other, else it be dealt back in triplicate. 

They made **vows**. 

But Tony Returns from death, a death he had prepared himself for. 

Instead he watches as his son dies, a price he was never prepared to pay. 

Unsurprisingly, his heart breaks. 

Tony Returns by his husband’s own hands, which means his son is lost by them. Tony knows this, and he longs to call Stephen Oathbreaker. 

For long, terrible minutes, he considers it. While he does not know what the consequences may be, Stephen had assured him they’d be immediate and most terrible. Oaths made by a Sorcerer Supreme –or to a Sorcerer Supreme- are not to be taken lightly. 

So yes, for long, terrible moments Tony considers calling it. Considers drawing down the fury of the gods or the hand of fate or whatever may lie in store. 

_‘Is this not harm?’_ A shadow in himself argues. _‘Is this not damage dealt by our beloved’s hand? So then, is he not foresworn? Is punishment not his to be wrought?’_

But Tony knows better. Tony’s heart, all six thousand shattered pieces of it, knows better. 

But still. 

“Stephen, tell me you didn’t.” He can’t help but plead. 

Can’t help but whisper so he doesn’t scream. “ **Tell me**.” 

Tony returns to life and mourns his son, mourns until his heart shatters and falls to pieces, and a shadow takes up residence behind the glow of his arc reactor, swells to fill his chest. 

“Tony.” Stephen pleads. “Tony, I had to” 

The shadow won’t accept that. Can’t. 

No. 

_“Tony.”_

No! 

“Tony.” Stephen’s hands –Stephen’s scarred, beautiful hands. Competent hands, a surgeon’s hands. A sorcerer’s hands. Stephen’s hands frame his face, tilt his head up. Sorrow, star filled blue eyes gaze into shrouded bronze. There is no golden ring now. No chips of emerald. Tony’s eyes are dark, his heart is shattered, his son is dead. 

Looking at Tony, Stephen feels his soul crack, threaten to splinter, threaten to fall headlong screaming into the dark between the stars, to join his heartmate there. But he can’t because his scarred hands are all that holds the other man together. 

And stars above how they want to shake. 

He can almost hear Tony’s thoughts. 

Oathbreaker… Forsworn. 

_No._ Stephen answers with every bit of himself, fractured halves held together by the embrace of the Cloak, rage weighted by lives lost, heart and soul caught in the dark eyes of the man he holds in his shaking, broken hands. 

Tony is shaking too. Tony is broken too. And that is Stephen’s fault. 

“Why.” 

“Because I can’t do this without you.” He admits. “Tony. Tony I tried, I swear I tried. We tried. Tony.” 

He won’t say Peter’s name right now, Tony doesn’t even have a thread to hang on. The thread has snapped and all Tony has are Stephen’s broken, shaking hands and a view of star and shadow, sorrow filled eyes. 

“I can’t without you.” Stephen admits to his soulmate, his husband. “It has to be us, Tony.” 

“Has to.” 

“Has to.” Stephen affirms. “But Tony? We can stop him. You and me. We can kill him and get the Gauntlet. We can win, Tony, if I have you. If I have you, we kill him.” 

The Shadow that poured out of the fracture in Tony’s soul perks up, takes notice. It growls in pleasure, coiling around the ashes of his heart. “We can kill him?” 

Dark brown eyes suddenly look livelier, but no less shadowed. “Stephen… We can kill him?” 

“Yes, love.” Stephen murmurs. “We can. And we can get the Gauntlet, and bring them all back.” 

Something in Tony goes on point, keen and quivering as a hunting hound. Something like hope wrapped in rage. 

“We… can?” 

“Yes.” Stephen snarls the affirmation. His mate is nearly lost in rage now, and it takes everything not to follow. “We can.” 

Something close to normal stirs, and Tony shakes in Stephen’s hold. “No… No, the rules.” 

“Fuck the Rules.” Stephen snarls. “For him. Tony, he is your son. He is our son. For Peter? I’ll break everything, save my vows to you.” 

Tony’s shadow of a soul purrs. “Then let’s go break the rules.” 

Stephen grins, the Cloak flourishing around his shoulders. “All I need is the Cloak and you.” 

“Darling, you always have me.” Tony snarls softly, a light in his eyes burning wicked and terrible. 

"Then I have everything I need... Let's go get our son back."

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this in pencil by the light of a cellphone at 4am... I'm sorry for any randomness, but it hasn't changed much from there to here. Lots of feels that needed venting. Don't worry, Peter will be brought back, I just needed to post this as it is wrapped. (It will be moving in the timeline of the series as I have other stuff incoming.)


End file.
